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Subcommittee adopts amendment to HB 4151 after testimony on juvenile transfer and gun-possession carve-out
Summary
After testimony warning that direct-file transfer for 16- and 17-year-olds can foreclose rehabilitation, the committee adopted Representative Robbins’s amendment expanding judicial discretion and gave HB 4151 a favorable report as amended in a roll call.
Chairman Jeff Johnson reconvened the House Criminal Law Subcommittee and resumed consideration of House Bill 41 51, a measure that would affect transfer of certain juvenile cases to adult court. Jay Elliott, a private-practice attorney from Columbia, told the panel that automatically subjecting 16-year-olds to adult sentences can destroy chances for rehabilitation: "You take that 16 year old kid and you put him away for 30 years ... there's no time off for good behavior." Elliott urged preserving judge-led hearings and cautioned about constitutional and practical risks of narrowly carved transfer rules.
Representative Robbins introduced an amendment that made several technical corrections, added a statutory cross-reference (transcript: "SC code 4453379"), and — most substantively — allowed the presiding circuit court judge, either sua sponte or on motion and after a hearing, to remand a case back to family court (expanding discretion beyond prosecutors). Robbins said the change was intended to give judges an additional route to return a youth to family court when appropriate.
During discussion Representative Hart said she was "kind of torn" and asked whether Robbins’s amendment alleviated opposition concerns; no member of the public reported in the transcript responded to that question. The committee adopted Robbins’s amendment by voice vote after the chair called for discussion.
The committee then ordered a roll call on the pending question of a favorable report on HB 4151 as amended. The transcript records Chairman Jeff Johnson voting "Aye," Representative Hart voting "Nay," Representative Robbins voting "Aye," and Representative Rose voting "Aye." The clerk announced the bill "favorable as amended." The committee also recorded adoption of the amendment prior to the roll call.
The subcommittee moved on to additional juvenile-related bills after taking the favorable vote on HB 4151.
